I loosened my tie as I walked outside the two-story building. It felt more like a noose than an accessory, choking me. The blazing heat of the day had me stripping off my suit jacket, hooking it on my finger, and slinging it over my shoulder as I walked down the sidewalk to my truck. My meeting had gone to shit. It had been a last-ditch effort to get someone on our side—someone to give us the go-ahead to move forward with the plans.
I could practically see my future going up in smoke. Everything I had worked so hard for was falling apart. I could get another job in another city, but it wasn’t what I wanted. It defeated the purpose of me coming back to Burning Butte. I couldn’t very well convince Erin I could support her and give her a good life if I was unemployed. Sure, I would have a fancy diploma to hang on the wall, but that wouldn’t mean shit in Burning Butte. The city manager wasn’t confident we would ever get our company off the ground. He was on board with it, but we needed a lot more than just his support. The guy was a little soft around the edges in my opinion. With him at the helm, Burning Butte would never grow, never prosper. I wasn’t a politician, but someone with some vision needed to step up and run the show instead of relying on the way things had always been done. The city manager was scared to make waves. Waves made life interesting in my opinion. He had told me too many townspeople had already come forward to make their opinions very clear on the matter. They resented some rich out-of-towners coming in trying to shake things up. If it were a local making the changes, they’d be all for it, but in their eyes, Larry Welsh was a rich man trying to get richer off the backs of hardworking people. I apparently didn’t count as a local, which didn’t exactly hurt my feelings.
I was almost to my truck when something caught my eye. I walked through the door and headed directly for the counter where Erin was staring down at the glass.
I stepped behind her and covered her eyes with my hands. “Guess who?” I said close to her ear.
She nearly jumped three feet in the air before spinning around and staring at me wild-eyed. “Jacob!” she exclaimed. “You’re here!”
“Hi. Yes, I’m here,” I said, wondering why she was acting like I had approached her wielding a chainsaw.
She looked down at three kids standing beside her. I realized they must be the Welsh kids. I had thought Larry said he had two kids, but I had obviously misheard him. “Who’s that?” a little girl with long brown hair and striking hazel eyes asked Erin.
Her brother and sister were looking at me with curious expressions on his face. “My name is Jacob. I’m an old friend of Erin’s,” I said with a smile.
The girl at the counter was looking at me expectantly. I ordered a double scoop of Rocky Road. Erin was standing shell-shocked in front of the register. I pulled out a twenty and paid for all of the ice cream.
“Thank you,” she murmured.
“Of course. Do you have a minute?” I asked.
She looked down at the kids. “I should probably get them home.”
“You just gave them ice cream cones,” I reminded her. “Do you really want those in the car?”
She smiled, still looking unsure. “You’re right. Sure.” She turned to the kids, ushering them to one of the red tables and gesturing for me to sit at the one directly behind the kids.
“Thanks.”
“What’s up?” she asked, her tongue popping out as she licked the strawberry ice cream. It was doing all sorts of things to my body that we not appropriate in a family setting. “I just left a meeting with the city manager.”
She grimaced. “Uh-oh. I take it didn’t go well?”
I shook my head. “No. Not at all. He basically laughed me out of his office. He’s okay with our plans and is actually thrilled with the idea of a little growth and what it could mean to the town. It’s everyone else that’s putting up a big fight.”
The little girl with the long brown hair got out of her seat and came to stand next to Erin. “You’re not eating your ice cream,” she said pointedly.
I looked at the cone in my hand and smiled. “I guess I’m not. I was too busy talking.”
“Do you want a different flavor?” she asked.
I shook my head. “I love Rocky Road.”
She held up her ice cream. “My favorite is mint chocolate chip.”
“I love ice cream too,” I agreed.
“I like ice cream almost as much as I like my best friends,” she said, nodding her head.
My eyebrows shot up. “Really? That’s pretty serious. I think I might like ice cream more than I like my friends,” I said with a laugh. “I wonder if there is a way to make the people around here like Larry Welsh as much as they like ice cream,” I joked, looking at Erin.
Erin took a bite of her ice cream and then froze, slapping her hand on the table. “Brain freeze?” I asked with a grimace.
She shook her head. “No! That’s it. That’s what we can do!”
“What?” I asked, completely confused, wondering what I had missed.
She bobbed her head up and down in that way she did when she was excited. “We’ll have an ice cream social. It will be a meet and greet and let people get to know Larry and his family. They’ll see that he is a good, family man with their best interests at heart. Granted, he’ll make a lot of money, but I bet he will be willing to give back to the community.”
I nodded my head, letting the idea resonate. “You’re right. That’s a great idea. We’ll buy all the ice cream from here, keep the money local. It will give everyone an idea about what money can do for their hometown.”
“Exactly. It’ll be a relaxed environment. No one is going to have an agenda pushed down their throat. They can talk, like really talk and just get to know him and the company and even you,” she said with a smile.
“Maybe I shouldn’t go,” I said.
She slowly shook her head. “No. You need to be there. You are a part of the company, and you’re going to be spending more time with them than Larry. You have to start somewhere. I think you’ll find people will be far more receptive to you when you strip off the suit and just be you. You don’t have to prove anything to anyone.” Her tone was gentle.
It was a little difficult to have a real conversation with a kid standing there hanging on every word, but fortunately, we knew each other well enough I could kind of read between the lines. I knew what she was saying. I had come on too strong. I was trying to be the proverbial rags-to-riches story, flaunting all my success with my tailored suits and five-hundred-dollar shoes. It was too much. I immediately felt like an asshole.
“You’re right. Jeans, cold beer, and lots of ice cream,” I said, nodding.
The little girl wrinkled her nose. “Beer? Nobody wants beer.”
“Men do,” I told her.
Erin nodded. “I think beer is a great idea. It will make the townspeople feel like you’re one of them. Larry too.”
“Do you really think it will work?” I asked hopefully.
“Everybody likes ice cream,” the little girl said. “And everyone likes new friends.”
Erin smiled at the girl, patting her on the shoulder. “Will you please go sit with Mackenzie and Mitchell?”
The girl nodded and bounced back to the table. “She’s smart. She must get that from her dad,” I commented.
Erin looked like she was going to vomit. “She did,” she muttered.
“I think it’s a good idea. Larry will love it,” I told her. “Thank you for helping me out. I’ve been kind of struggling here.”
“Thank you for warning me about what was coming,” she said.
I ate my ice cream, thinking about the upcoming social. “I did come on kind of high-and-mighty, huh?”
She shrugged. “You had a hard time when you were here last. I get it. You wanted to prove you had made it, exceeded all of them in wealth, and weren’t the guy you were when you left. We all dream of doing that. We all want to come home after being gone a long time and have something to show for it. You’re not the first person to leave Burning Butte an
d come back with an education and a step up in life. With that said, you are one of the first to come back with a chip on your shoulder.”
“I don’t—” I stopped. I did. She knew me too well.
“I don’t blame you. I think I would have a hell of a chip on my shoulder too after what happened to you,” she grumbled.
“I’ll do better,” I said, nodding.
“I know you will. I have to get these guys back home.”
“Will you come by tomorrow?” I asked her.
She nodded. “I will. I’ll drop them off at camp and head over.”
“Thank you, Erin,” I said, wishing like hell I could touch her or give her a kiss goodbye.
She rose and wiped the hands of each kid before leading them out the door. I liked watching her with the kids. She was good with them. I could see how much they liked her as well. Larry couldn’t have gotten any luckier with another nanny. Watching her with the kids made me want to try even harder to make the Western Energies thing work. Those kids needed her as much as she needed the job. I could swallow my pride, strip away the cool veneer I had been wearing since I’d first graduated from business school.
I tossed the remaining bit of my ice cream cone in the trash and headed for my truck. I felt a million times better now that we had a plan. I was sure it would work. Larry was a very personable man, and if they would give him a chance, I was sure they would see he was a good man. I had to get his foot in the door.
I wasn’t looking forward to telling Larry about the meeting with the city manager, but I wouldn’t lie to him. We were still in for an uphill battle, but at least now we had a chance.
16
Erin
The term playing with fire was totally apt for my situation. After the run-in with Jacob at the ice cream shop, I should have learned a lesson. It should have been a wake-up call that parading his daughter right under his nose was only going to end badly. Every damn time I spoke with him and didn’t tell him about her, I was making the situation a little worse. Like the ice cream shop. Ellie was right in front of him, talking to him, and he had no idea he was talking to his daughter. I felt horrible that he didn’t know, and the longer I kept it from him, the worse it was going to be when he found out. I just couldn’t bring myself to say it. If only Hallmark made a card or there was a book that gave pointers about how to tell a dude ‘surprise, you’re the proud daddy of a seven-year-old.’
Thankfully, Jacob didn’t ask questions about Ellie. It was as if it never occurred to him I could have gotten pregnant. If she would have called me mom, I wondered if he would have put it together. The job situation was definitely occupying his thoughts for the time being, but once that was settled, he might come up for air and really look around and notice the little girl who bore a striking resemblance to him. Instead, he seemed to take it all in stride that I was hanging out with three kids. Maybe he didn’t know how many kids Larry had, or maybe he thought she was a tagalong. When she had actually talked with him, I had thought for sure the jig was up. I thought he’d recognize himself in her. He didn’t or he didn’t mention it.
“Do you think that will work?” he asked.
I blinked, looking up from the yellow pad I had in my lap. I had been staring at the word chocolate for too long. My eyes were blurred from staring and not blinking as I mulled over the Ellie situation. We’d been in his office working up a plan for the ice cream social for a couple of hours and were making good progress, but it didn’t stop my mind from drifting. I kept waiting for him to tell me he knew and was waiting for me to tell him. I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop, for him to rage at me before storming out, never to be seen again.
“Yes,” I blurted out, not entirely sure what I was saying yes to.
“Larry was thrilled with the idea. I gave you all the credit,” he said with a smile. “He’s anxious to meet people and show them he isn’t really the big bad wolf they’re making him out to be.”
“Thank you for telling him it was my idea, but you’re doing a lot of the work on this,” I told him with a smile.
“Do you think we’ll be able to get your dad or Philip to go?” he questioned, his mouth set in a tight line.
I shrugged. “I think my dad will go, but I wouldn’t count on Philip, at least not to be a help to the situation. If he goes, I imagine it would only make things worse. He might rile people up and completely disrupt the plan of having a casual event.”
He groaned, leaning back in his chair. “Great. Why don’t we cordially disinvite him?” he said with a chuckle.
I rolled my eyes. “Oh, yeah, because that will make it so much better when he shows up uninvited and pissed.”
“Maybe I should just let him hit me and get it over with,” he grumbled.
“That’s not a terrible idea,” I offered, earning a scowl from him.
“Whose side are you on?” he asked, looking me in the eyes. I didn’t answer. “Never mind,” he said with a sigh.
The easy nature vanished with the subject of Philip hanging between us. “We’ll have to work on this tomorrow. I’ve got to get the kids picked up,” I said, checking the time and looking for any excuse to leave.
“We have a lot to get done. I need to get this social planned as soon as possible. Every day we’re not moving forward, we’re burning money,” he said. “Is there any way you can have someone pick them up?”
“No. I’m the nanny, remember?” I said, a little irritated he would even suggest it.
“Sorry. Why don’t I come by the house in an hour or so?” he offered.
I shook my head. I couldn’t have him around Ellie or the Welsh family in general. The risk of them mentioning she was my daughter was too great. “I can come back tomorrow after I drop them off,” I told him.
“Can we have dinner tonight—strictly business,” he quickly added. “I don’t want to put you out, but this is so important.”
I grimaced. “I can’t. I don’t get to punch out at five o’clock. There’s dinner and baths and the general craziness. I think the Welshes might have plans later,” I mumbled, not technically lying but not knowing for sure. I was terrified to spend time with him. What if my secret slipped? What if he was testing me and I was failing? What if he knew about Ellie and she was the real reason he came back?
“Erin, I don’t have to tell you how important this is for both of us. We’ve got a good start. We could have this thing in a couple of weeks if we can finalize the details. Larry is anxious to get the permit process started. That is going to take weeks, possibly months. Every single day is truly costing thousands,” he said, stressing the word. “A couple hours, please?” he pleaded.
“I get it, but I have a job. I can’t up and leave the kids. I’m working to keep the job I have. I’m not trying to lose it by shirking my duties. They need me.”
He rubbed his hands over his face. “I get it, I do. What time do they go to bed?”
I laughed. “You’re persistent.”
“I am. You know I am. This is important to me, and I never give up on anything I really want.”
I thought about it, staring at the pleading in his eyes, and was helpless to deny him. He had a warmth, a depth to him that I had never found in anyone else. It was like there was an invisible thread connecting the two of us. I felt like I understood him better than anyone else in the world.
“Okay,” I heard myself say.
“Okay?”
I let out a sigh. “Yes. It won’t be until after eight. I need to get the kids settled and make sure it’s okay with Larry and Ivy.”
“Perfect,” he said, jumping up and going to his desk. I watched as he wrote something down on a piece of paper before handing it to me. “My address. I’ll see you then.”
I stuck the paper in my pocket, telling myself I was only taking it because it was important to keeping my job. It wasn’t because I wanted to see him. I got into the Welsh SUV and headed for the church where the kids were finishing up their final days of camp.
“You’re going to have a sleepover at Grandpa’s house tonight,” I told her.
She grinned. “Yeah! We can work on our birdhouse!”
“Yes, you can, but you can’t stay up late,” I warned her.
I knew my words were falling on deaf ears. All bets were off when it came to Grandpa’s house. With the other kids settled in, I packed Ellie a little overnight bag and took her to my dad’s house.
“To what do I owe this lovely gift?” he asked.
“I have a new project I’m working on. It’s important and I need to put in the time to make sure it’s perfect,” I told him.
He smiled. “A project, huh?” he asked.
“Yes, Dad. I’m not saying any more. I’ll be by in the morning. I don’t want to wake her after she’s gone to bed,” I said, trying to sound completely rational.
“It’s no problem. You have a good night,” he said with that knowing smile.
I walked to my car, a little weirded out that my dad knew what I was up to, even if I didn’t tell him. It was that cop sixth sense. I double-checked the address Jacob had given me and pointed the car in the right direction. I parked in the driveway of the newer house in a quiet part of town. I remembered when we had talked about living in the good part of town in one of the fancy houses. He’d achieved his dream. I was proud of him.
I knocked on the door. When he opened it, he was wearing a pair of worn jeans and a T-shirt that looked like it had been washed a hundred times. The man standing in front of me was the man I remembered from eight years ago. It was the rough-and-tough guy I had fallen for so long ago. This was the man I wanted everyone else to see. Or maybe not. I kind of liked the idea of keeping him all to myself.
“Come in,” he said, opening the door wide.
“Thanks,” I murmured, turning sideways to avoid touching him as I walked into his house.
I looked around the living room. It was a nice house, big and roomy with an open floor plan. I could see the kitchen, dining room, and living room from where I stood just inside the doorway. Whoever had made the idea trendy was a genius. It was so much easier to be able to watch the kids while making dinner or cleaning up the kitchen without walls blocking the view.
Bad Boy’s Secret Baby Page 9